Chapter 85 : New body

« You said that you knew what the… Metal wanted ? Or was it Rhythm ? »

« They're both true… » Ned clarified. « Different names for the same thing. By the way, I don't know how you spell it but it's Rithm : R-I-T-H-M. Though, I said that I had an idea what it wanted. I'm not a 100% sure… » He paused before continuing : « Like all Elemental forces, it probably wants dominion over the world. »

« Dominion ? What do you mean ? » Sarah enquired.

« It wants to spread its influence, like a cancer. Even though disrupting the balance would only be detrimental to it in the long run… With this in mind, you can say that those forces are like the human race. We spread and develop with no regard for our environment, planet or the other lives on it. Then again, humans are part of the Red, so… it makes sense. »

« What's the Red ? »

Ned turned toward his father :

« The elemental force representing the animal kingdom. »

His mother frowned as she pointed out :

« I thought there were only four elements… Or five if we base it on the eastern beliefs. »

« Nope ! There are a lot more. Plant life, animal life, sea life… But also, air, fire, minerals. There's even elemental forces for mushroom and bacterial life, as well as, like I said, technological lifeforms. »

« And how do you know all this ? I often read your books and I've found no mention of any of it… » Ed commented.

« Books aren't the only sources of knowledge. I know a guy ! » The last part was said with a teasing tone. He never told anyone about his former life. What was the point, really ? Beyond his knowledge of this reality, his former life had no incidence on this one. Well… Maybe it molded his character a bit, but that was about it. However, the idea of someone reincarnating, with knowledge of this world coming from comic books ? It would boggle the mind ! Either they'd thought he was crazy (which until his transition into a tech spirit life-form, was accurate) or it would break them…

Ned didn't think people could accept the idea that they lived in a fictional world. As for his children… He didn't tell them either. Still, he was pretty sure they had some doubts, if not outright beliefs or proof.

Besides… It was kind of true. Constantine was aware of a lot of bullshit cosmic powers and forces at play in this world. And he knew Constantine so…

« It's done ! » Winston suddenly exclaimed followed by a relieved sigh. As his massive bulk stepped aside, the unconscious body of a young African-American with dreadlocks and a sci-fi equipment was revealed.

« Perfect ! » Ned exulted. Lucio was perhaps one of his favorite character to play in Overwatch. Not because he was good with him, or that he was powerful. No ! Lucio was a support character that could either speed his allies up, or heal them through his auras. The reason why he liked the character was because he was one of the most mobile one, with his magnetic skates. Not only could he skate around pretty fast, he could wall ride almost indefinitely, provided there were no obstacles. He was a bona-fide future ninja ! Without the stealth, or the blades…

Instead, Lucio used a sonic gun, whose barrel resembled a rather large speaker. Unlike the game version who only had two attack modes (short and quick bursts and one powerful one with a knock-back effect), his version had a few other. There was a lot of things that sounds could do after all… Or rather, that a wave could do. He struggled a bit with the designs and the enchantments for it, unfortunately. Even more so considering he basically dropped the project midway because his attention was diverted elsewhere. Winston had to finish it himself with a few pointers from him, in the end. Now, that he didn't have a body, he couldn't exactly do the work himself after all…

However, soon, that would change. He would take Lucio's body for a short while. Then, he would be able to work on making a more permanent one. After that… Well, he had to stop himself from doing anything bad, shouldn't he ? And perhaps, bring himself back to the side of the angels.

« And then, what ? » Ned muttered to himself.

* * * * *

Instead of wallowing in existential questions, Ned decided to take Lucio's body for a spin. It was a weird way to think, but that's just how it was in Ned's life now.

The African-American young man was skating in a relatively deserted part of the city, by the river. He found out quite quickly that it wasn't much different from controlling his own body. Well… Actually, there was something very different about his new condition. As soon as the phylactery was installed in the body and allowed to interface with it, a status window appeared to update it of a few facts.

The window was quite similar to RPG games or things he read in LitRPG novels. However, unlike those, he didn't grow stronger infinitely. Rather, it was his control over his body's functions that increased little by little until it reached a 100% proficiency. At least, that's how he thought it worked…

Here's how it looked :

Golem : Lucio

Type : Support, agility.

Proficiencies :

Targeting proficiency : 12 %

Skating proficiency : 10 %

Wall-riding proficiency : 2 %

Crossfade (Speed buff) : 1 %

Crossfade (healing buff) : 1 %

Amp it up (speed/healing) : 1 %

Sound Barrier : 0 %

Thankfully, it was quite easy to figure out. Then again, Ned believed that this interface existed because of his subconscious as a way to help him cope with his new situation. Normally, a program or AI didn't need something like this. A binary code was sufficient. However, Ned was, initially, human. Now that his mind and everything else that made him, him had been converted to code, he needed time to adjust. Or, perhaps, it would stay that way…

In any case, although it was informative, it didn't really impact his day-to-day life, nor how he should proceed from now on. Especially considering the fact that this body was only temporary.

Besides, although he was training in order to understand his new body's capabilities, he had more pressing matters to attend to…

Spotting his targeted roof a block away, Ned sped up and jumped up on the wall, using his magnetic skates to gain altitude. It was slightly tricky, as gravity fought off the hold magnetism had on the wall every time he took one foot off of it. Unlike the Overwatch character, Ned still hadn't found a way for him to rise and gain speed while staying his feet riveted on the wall. With friction of the air and the wall under his feet, his inertia was slowly getting chipped away, so he had no choice but to skate from time to time, to regain it.

Finally up on the roof, Ned looked out to the Hudson, watching the traffic pass by on the bridge, far in the distance. For a while, he stayed like this, pondering…

His new condition left him quite torn. On the one hand, losing his body was quite a blow. If not for Winston, he would still be stuck in the never-ending darkness of his Tech Spirit mind. His children never told him how awful the experience was before they were connected to a network.

Then again, if not for Sombra and Winston, he didn't know what would have become of him. Being turned into a puppet for an elemental force (if that !) wasn't exactly an optimum situation either.

However, now that he was basically, an AI there were new possibilities available to him. Possibilities he had yet to experience, consider or even discover. Possibilities like… Virtual Reality. Now that he was a computer program, could he perhaps, dive into a game or something of the like ? Now, that would be quite fun, wouldn't it ?

Moreover, he wondered if it had any repercussions on his learning ability. He would have to connect himself directly to Youtube and Wikipedia to find that out later. Perhaps he could directly download or copy the knowledge and make it his ? What about martial arts and other physical skills ? Ned was growing excited as these ideas crossed his phylactery.

Then, he took a deep breath. A moment later, he realized the action was useless itself. He no longer had the brain or even the body chemistry and processes that would allow this action to calm him down. Still, for some reason, it worked. Probably because he thought it would, as a sort of placebo effect…

Ned opened the communications line between him and his other remaining children. He had found out that Mel, Symmetra and Bastion had gone dark, MIA. He knew they weren't dead, but, he didn't know and wanted to know what had happened to them. Harvest couldn't have captured them, could he ?

« Hey, Winston ! Any luck locating your siblings ? »

There was a bit of static on the line for a while and nothing else until…

« Yes, we have… though it's quite odd. »

Ned tilted his head, but ignored his son's reflection.

« Can Sombra portkey us to them ? »

« She should be able to… »

« Alright ! Let's get back in the game, then, shall we ? »